VietNamNet Bridge - Twelve investors have registered to build factories which make unburned bricks from cinders generated by coal thermal power plants in Binh Thuan province. Coal cinder generators are also considering packaging cinders for export.

The Vinh Tan 2 thermal power plant discharges thousands of tons of coal ash every day. The cinders are put on a large ground covered with canvas sheets and watered daily to prevent them from being scattering to pollute the environment, while there is no solution to treat the ash.

Trouble occurred in mid-2015, when the ash from the plant scattered in the air, polluting the environment and affecting thousands of local households. Hundreds of people in Tuy Phong district of Binh Thuan province intercepted vehicles on Highway No 1 to demonstrate their protest against environmental pollution caused by coal residue from the plant.

An official of the Binh Thuan provincial People’s Committee said local authorities have found 12 investors who want to make unburned bricks from thermal plants’ cinders.

However, the official said no final decision has been made. The Electricity Corporation No 3, a subsidiary of the Electricity of Vietnam, the investor of Vinh Tan 2 Plant, remains indecisive about selling ash to unburned brick factories or packaging cinders for export.

Investors and coal ash owners plan to negotiate about the ash transfer. Meanwhile, local authorities will create most favorable conditions in land access and administration procedures for investors.

Under the national electricity development program, the Vinh Tan Power Center in Binh Thuan province would develop four coal thermal power plants with the total capacity of 5,600 MW. The plants will consume big amounts of coal and produce up to 5 million tons of coal cinders a year.

Therefore, Binh Thuan needs to act soon to find solutions to treat coal ash, or the plants would cause environmental disasters to Tuy Phong district, where power plants are located.

Vietnamese enterprises do not face any technological problems treating the coal cinders. 

At an investment promotion conference in Binh Thuan province on September 12, some investors expressed their wish to buy the coal cinders from Vinh Tan 2 to make unfired bricks. 

Binh Thuan’s chair Le Tien Phuong said the coal cinders were not owned by the local authorities and the investors should contact Electricity of Vietnam to discuss the issue.

However, Phuong affirmed that Binh Thuan wants to have factories which consume coal cinders in order to reduce pollution.

There are 18 coal thermal power plants operational throughout the country which consume 50 million tons of coal a year and discharge millions of tons of ash. 

TBKTSG